Comparison of frontends

2023-04-19T09:41:17Z

Kratos: Update RetroArch latest update

{{WIP}}
Below is a basic comparison table for all the known multi-system [[Frontends|front-ends]] for emulators. The table does not include single system front-ends (such as EmuCon, Mame Classic, Negatron, pfeMame, QMC2, etc.) or front-ends for other dedicated software such as Kodi.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Name
! Creator
! Open Source
! Free (Libre)
! First public release date
! Latest stable version release date
! Windows
! Macintosh
! GNU/Linux
! Other platforms
|-
! [http://www.atomicfe.com/EN2/ Atomic]
| 'Youki'
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| 2005-02-08 (v0.11)
| 2010-01-23 (v0.20)
| {{✓}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
|-
! [http://attractmode.org/ Attract-Mode]
| Andrew Mickelson
| {{✓}}<ref name="Github repository">[https://github.com/mickelson/attract Github - mickelson/attract]</ref>
| {{✓}} (GPLv3)
| 2013-11-17 (v1.0)
| 2020-01-17 (v2.6.1)
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| N/A
|-
! [http://www.auroragamehub.com/ Aurora Game Hub]
| Carlos Machado, Sammy Guergachi
| {{✓}}<ref name="Sourceforge repository">[https://sourceforge.net/projects/auroragm/ SourceForge.net - auroragm]</ref><ref name="AuroraGameHub gh repo">[https://github.com/sguergachi/AuroraGameHub Github - sguergachi/AuroraGameHub]</ref>
| {{✓}} (GPLv3)
| 2013-08-14 (Alpha_8_b794)
| style="background: #FFB" | 2013-08-14 (Alpha_8_b794)
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| N/A
| BSD
|-
! [http://tasvideos.org/BizHawk.html BizHawk]
| 'Nach'
| {{✓}}<ref name"Github repository">[https://github.com/TASVideos/BizHawk Github - TASVideos/BizHawk]</ref>
| style="background: #FFB" | "minefield"<ref>[https://github.com/TASVideos/BizHawk/blob/e60896c1b745ef573fde784155432bef44e78b18/LICENSE Repository License]</ref>
| 2018-03-15 (v1.0.0)
| 2019-01-06 (v2.3.1)
| {{✓}}
| N/A
| style="background: #FFB" | To be compiled<ref>[https://github.com/TASVideos/BizHawk#gnulinux BizHawk README.md - Installing GNU+Linux]</ref>
| N/A
|-
! [https://github.com/quinton-ashley/bottlenose Bottlenose]
| Quinton Ashley
| {{✓}}<ref>[https://github.com/quinton-ashley/bottlenose Github - quinton-ashley/bottlenose]</ref>
| {{✓}} (MIT)
| 2019-03-04 (v1.0.12)
| 2019-04-09 (v1.0.65)
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| N/A
|-
! [http://www.cabrio-fe.org/ CabrioFE]
| Steve Maddison
| {{✓}}<ref name"Github repository">[https://github.com/SteveMaddison/cabrio Github - SteveMaddison/cabrio]</ref>
| {{✓}} (GPLv2)
| 2009-10-26 (v0.3.0)
| style="background: #FFB" | 2011-06-24 (v0.8.2 - beta version)
| style="background: #FFB" | v0.8.1
| {{✗}}
| {{✓}}
| N/A
|-
! [http://coinops.ninja/ CoinOPS]
| N/A
| N/A
| N/A
| N/A
| N/A
| N/A
| N/A
| N/A
| N/A
|-
! [http://emucenter.2.free.fr/website/ENG/ EmuCenter 2]
| N/A
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| 2010-03-20 (v0.6)
| 2016-09-01 (v7.1.0.181)
| {{✓}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
|-
! [http://emuloader.mameworld.info/emucon/ EmuCon]
| N/A
| {{✓}}<ref name"Download page">[http://emuloader.mameworld.info/emucon/downloads.htm EmuCon Download page with sources]</ref>
| {{✗}}
| 2008-04-23 (v2.0)
| 2017-11-21 (v2.7.7)
| {{✓}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
|-
! [https://emulationstation.org/ Emulation Station]
| Alec Lofquist and others
| {{✓}}<ref name"Github repository">[https://github.com/Aloshi/EmulationStation Github - Aloshi/EmulationStation]</ref><ref name"Github repository">[https://github.com/RetroPie/EmulationStation Github - RetroPie/EmulationStation (fork)]</ref>
| {{✓}} (MIT)
| 2013-10-26 (v1.0.0)
| 2019-03-09 (v2.7.6 - on retropie repo)
| {{✓}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✓}}
| Raspberry Pi<ref name="RetroPie Documentation">[https://emulationstation.org/gettingstarted.html#install_rpi_retropie RetroPie Documentation on the emulation station wiki]</ref>
|-
! [http://emuloader.mameworld.info/ EmuLoader]
| N/A
| {{✓}}<ref name"Download page">[http://emuloader.mameworld.info/downloads.htm EmuLoader Download page with sources]</ref>
| {{✗}}
| 2007-08-27 (v5.1.6)
| 2019-05-31 (v8.7.6)
| {{✓}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
|-
! [http://feelfrontend.altervista.org/ FEEL]
| 'Sincro'
| {{✓}}<ref>[https://github.com/dr-prodigy/feel-frontend Github - dr-prodigy/feel-frontend]</ref>
| {{✓}} (LGPLv3)
| 2015-09-12 (v1.8.1)
| 2018-06-08 (v1.9.8.5)
| {{✓}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
|-
! [https://www.gameex.com/ GameEx]
| Tom Speirs
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| 2016-04-14 (v14.44)
| 2019-05-15 (v15.60)
| {{✓}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
|-
! [https://gameroom.me/ GameRoom]
| Max 'n0xew' ??
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| 2016-12-13 (v0.0.0.9)
| 2018-03-12 (v1.1.2.0)
| {{✓}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
|-
! [https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Games Games (Gnome)]
| Various contributors
| {{✓}}<ref>[https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-games/ Gitlab - GNOME-games]</ref>
| {{✓}} (GPLv3)
| 2015-10-20 (v3.18.0)
| 2019-05-24 (v3.33.2)
| {{✗}}
| N/A
| {{✓}}
| N/A
|-
! [https://hyperspin-fe.com/ HyperSpin]
| Jonathan Habers
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| N/A
| 2018-05-07 (v1.5.1)
| {{✓}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| Android<ref name="Android download forum thread">[https://hyperspin-fe.com/files/category/445-hyperspin-android/ HyperSpin (Android)]</ref>
|-
! [https://scottrice.github.io/Ice/ Ice]
| Scott Rice
| {{✓}}<ref name"Github repository">[https://github.com/scottrice/Ice Github - scottrice/Ice]</ref>
| {{✓}} (MIT)
| 2016-01-29 (v1.0.0)
| 2016-01-29 (v1.0.0)
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| N/A
|-
! [https://www.launchbox-app.com/ Launch Box]
| Jason Carr
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| N/A
| N/A
| {{✓}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
|-
! [http://lusspace.free.fr/ LusSpace]
| 'Space1'
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| N/A
| 2016-11-08 (v1.23)
| {{✓}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
|-
! [https://lutris.net/ Lutris]
| Mathieu Comandon and others
| {{✓}}<ref>[https://github.com/lutris/lutris Github - lutris/lutris]</ref>
| {{✓}} (GPLv3)
| 2013-12-15 (v0.3.2)
| 2019-04-09 (v0.5.2)
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✗}}
|-
! [http://malafe.net/ MaLa]
| Stefan 'swindus' Windus, Simon 'loadman' Loader
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| 2005-07-26 (v0.9.7b)
| 2011-03-27 (v1.74)
| {{✓}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
|-
! [https://www.maximus-arcade.com/ Maximus Arcade]
| N/A
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| N/A
| N/A
| {{✓}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
|-
! [https://www.metropolis-launcher.net/ Metropolis Launcher]
| Jörg 'MK2k' Sonntag
| {{✓}}<ref>[https://github.com/theMK2k/MetropolisLauncher Github - theMK2k/MetropolisLauncher]</ref>
| {{✓}} (GPLv3)
| 2017-04-27 (v1.0.0)
| 2018-09-07 (v1.2.0)
| {{✓}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
|-
! [http://www.mgalaxy.com/ mGalaxy]
| N/A
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| 2007-02-05 (v1.0)
| 2019-04-?? (v7.5)
| {{✓}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
|-
! [https://pegasus-frontend.org/ Pegasus]
| Mátyás Mustoha
| {{✓}}<ref>[https://github.com/mmatyas/pegasus-frontend Github - mmatyas/pegasus-frontend]</ref>
| {{✓}} (GPLv3)
| 2017-08-07 (Alpha 3)
| 2021-05-04 (alpha15)
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| Android, Raspberry Pi
|-
! [https://photongamemanager.com/ Photon Game Manager]
| Thomas Preece
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| N/A
| N/A
| {{✓}}
| {{✗}}
| style="background: #FFB" | Experimental
| {{✗}}
|-
! [https://playnite.link/ Playnite]
| Josef Nemec
| {{✓}}<ref>[https://github.com/JosefNemec/Playnite Github - JosefNemec/Playnite]</ref>
| {{✓}} (MIT)
| 2017-03-28 (v0.70 Alpha)
| 2021-10-15 (v9.0)
| {{✓}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
|-
! [https://projectascension.io Project Ascension]
| Jake Schadewe and others
| {{✓}}<ref>[https://github.com/Proj-Ascension/ Github - Project Ascension]</ref>
| {{✓}} (MIT)
| 2016-01-30 (v1.0.34)
| 2016-01-30 (v1.0.34)
| {{✓}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
|-
! [http://quickplay.sourceforge.net/ QuickPlay]
| John Scott
| {{✓}}<ref name"SourceForge repository">[https://sourceforge.net/p/quickplay/code/ SourceForge - QuickPlay]</ref>
| {{✓}} (BSD-3)
| 2014-04-14 (v3.9.0)
| 2022-03-26 (v4.7.6)
| {{✓}}
| N/A
| N/A
| N/A
|-
! [https://www.retroarch.com/ RetroArch]
| 'Twinaphex' and others
| {{✓}}<ref>[https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch Github - libretro/RetroArch]</ref>
| {{✓}} (GPLv3)
| 2011-01-25 (v0.2)
| 2023-03-16 (v1.15.0)
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| DOS, BSD, Haiku, Solaris, PS2, PS3, PSP, PSVita, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, GameCube, Wii, Wii U, 3DS, Switch, NES/SNES Classic Edition, Raspberry Pi, Android, iOS, Blackberry, Web Browser
|-
! [http://retrofe.nl/ RetroFe]
| Don Honerbrink
| {{✓}}<ref name"BitBucket repository">[https://bitbucket.org/phulshof/retrofe/src/ Bitbucket - phulshof/retrofe]</ref>
| {{✓}} (GPLv3)
| 2016-07-26 (v0.7.2-beta-1)
| 2019-05-26 (v0.9.0)
| {{✓}}
| style="background: #FFB" | To be compiled
| {{✓}}
| N/A
|-
! [http://romjacket.mudlord.info/ RoM-Jacket]
| 'Jinx'
| {{✓}} (.bat files)
| {{✗}}
| N/A
| N/A
| {{✓}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
|-
! [https://romjacket.github.io/ skeletonKey]
| 'romjacket'
| {{✓}}<ref>[https://github.com/romjacket/skeletonKey Github - romjacket/skeletonKey]</ref>
| {{✗}}
| 2018-05-22 (v0.99.34.34)
| 2019-05-30 (v0.99.69.81)
| {{✓}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
| {{✗}}
|-
! [https://snowflakepowe.red/ Snowflake]
| Ronny Chan
| {{✓}}<ref>[https://github.com/SnowflakePowered/snowflake Github - SnowflakePowered/snowflake]</ref>
| {{✓}} (MPLv2.0)
| 2015-01-15 (v0.1.0)
| style="background: #FFB" | 2017-07-10 (v0.2.1158)
| style="background: #FFB" | To be compiled
| style="background: #FFB" | To be compiled
| style="background: #FFB" | To be compiled
| N/A
|-
! [https://frogthefrog.github.io/steam-rom-manager/ Steam Rom Manager]
| Lukas Senionis
| {{✓}}<ref>[https://github.com/FrogTheFrog/steam-rom-manager Github - FrogTheFrog/steam-rom-manager]</ref>
| {{✓}} (GPLv3)
| 2017-04-30 (v1.0.0)
| 2019-03-10 (v2.2.19)
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| N/A
|}

= Technical facts =

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Name
! Download size
! Current status
! Language used
! Libraries used
|-
! Atomic
| 35.2 MiB
| style="background: #FFD2D2" | Discontinued
| Visual Basic
| N/A
|-
! Attract-Mode
| 34.5 - 35.9 MiB
| style="background: #D2FFD2" | Actively maintained
| C++
| SFML, OpenAL, Zlib, FreeType 2, FFmpeg (avformat, avcodec, swscale, avutil, swresample/avresample), OpenGL+GLU, JPEG. Optionally: Fontconfig, Xinerama, libarchive, Libcurl.
|-
! Aurora Game Hub
| 12.2 MiB
| style="background: #FFD2D2" | Discontinued
| Java
| h2 database Engine
|-
! BizHawk
| 48.1 MiB (+43 MiB on windows)
| style="background: #D2FFD2" | Actively maintained
| C++ & C#
| DirectX 9, libblip_buf
|-
! Bottlenose
| 56.4 - 87.2 MiB
| style="background: #D2FFD2" | Actively maintained
| HTML/JS/CSS
| await-spawn, bootstrap, chrome-finder, circletype, contro, contro-ui, copy-paste, deep-extend, delay, diacritics, electron-pug, fs-extra, fuse.js, gca-js, gooder, jquery, klaw, markdown-it, material-design-icons-iconfont, moment, mousetrap, node-7z, opn, popper.js, probe-image-size, pug, puppeteer-core, requisition, tether, three, yauzl-promise
|-
! CabrioFE
| 1.5 MiB
| style="background: #FFD2D2" | Discontinued
| C
| SDL, SDL_image, SDL_gfx, SDL_mixer, SDL_ttf, glut, libxml2, ffmpeg
|-
! CoinOPS
| ?
| style="background: #FFD2D2" | Discontinued
| ?
| ?
|-
! EmuCenter 2
| 176 MiB
| style="background: #FFB" | Possibly discontinued
| C++ and/or C#
| N/A
|-
! EmuCon
| 5.54 MiB
| style="background: #FFD2D2" | Discontinued
| Pascal
|
|-
! Emulation Station
| 13.1 MiB
| style="background: #D2FFD2" | Actively maintained
| C++
| SDL2, Boost (System, Filesystem, DateTime, Locale), FreeImage, FreeType, Eigen3, and cURL
|-
! EmuLoader
| 16.50 MiB
| style="background: #D2FFD2" | Actively maintained
| Pascal
|
|-
! FEEL
| 26.4 MiB
| style="background: #FFB" | Possibly discontinued
| C#
| XNA, SharpDx, SmartASD, "other smaller libs" (sic)
|-
! GameEx
| 81.8 MiB
| style="background: #D2FFD2" | Actively maintained
| C#
|
|-
! GameRoom
| 67.7 MiB
| style="background: #FFB" | Possibly discontinued
| Java
|
|-
! Games (Gnome)
| 8.9 MiB
| style="background: #D2FFD2" | Actively maintained
| Vala
| retro-gtk, libmanette, libhandy
|-
! HyperSpin
| 479.12 MiB
| style="background: #FFB" | Possibly discontinued
| ActionScript
|
|-
! Ice
| 11.3 MiB
| style="background: #FFB" | Possibly discontinued
| Python
| appdirs, pastebin, psutil, pysteam
|-
! Launch Box
| 218 MiB
| style="background: #D2FFD2" | Actively maintained
| C#
|
|-
! LusSpace
| 2.9 MiB
| style="background: #FFB" | Possibly discontinued
| Visual Basic 6
|
|-
! Lutris
| 1.7 MiB
| style="background: #D2FFD2" | Actively maintained
| Python
| PyYAML, PyGObject, evdev, requests, optional pypresence for discord
|-
! MaLa
|-
! Maximus Arcade
|-
! Metropolis Launcher
| 261.16 MiB
| style="background: #D2FFD2" | Actively maintained
| VB.Net 4.0
| DevExpress WinForms v15.2, DiscUtils, HtmlAgilityPack, Newtonsoft.Json, Ookii.Dialogs, SgmlReaderDll, SharpCompress
|-
! mGalaxy
|-
! Pegasus
|-
! Photon Game Manager
|-
! Playnite
|-
! Project Ascension
|-
! QuickPlay
| 32.8 MiB
| style="background: #D2FFD2" | Actively maintained
| Delphi
|
|-
! RetroArch
| 4.8 - 165 - 806 MiB (Android - Win10 64bit - PS3 DEX)
| style="background: #D2FFD2" | Actively maintained
| C
| libretro, an audio library (ALSA, OSS, etc.), optional dependencies
|-
! RetroFe
|-
! RoM-Jacket
|-
! skeletonKey
|-
! Snowflake
|-
! Steam Rom Manager
|}

= Emulator support =

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Name
! RetroArch
! MAME
! NEStopia
! FCEUX
! Snes9x
! ZSnes
! Mupen64Plus
! Dolphin
! Cemu
! VisualBoyAdvance(-M)
! Citra
! NeoCD
! EPSXe
! PCSX2
! RPCS3
! PPSSPP
|-
! Atomic
|-
! Attract-Mode
|-
! Aurora Game Hub
|-
! BizHawk
|-
! Bottlenose
|-
! CabrioFE
|-
! CoinOPS
|-
! EmuCenter 2
|-
! EmuCon
|-
! Emulation Station
|-
! EmuLoader
|-
! FEEL
|-
! GameEx
|-
! GameRoom
|-
! Games (Gnome)
|-
! HyperSpin
|-
! Ice
|-
! Launch Box
|-
! LusSpace
|-
! Lutris
|-
! MaLa
|-
! Maximus Arcade
|-
! Metropolis Launcher
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
|
| {{✓}}
|
|
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
|
| {{✓}}
|-
! mGalaxy
|-
! Pegasus
|-
! Photon Game Manager
|-
! Playnite
|-
! Project Ascension
|-
! QuickPlay
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
|-
! RetroArch
|-
! RetroFe
|-
! RoM-Jacket
|-
! skeletonKey
|-
! Snowflake
|-
! Steam Rom Manager
|}

= Features =

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Name
! Has console categories
! Theme support
! Display descriptions
! Display box arts
! Display video previews
! Scrape descriptions
! Scrape box arts
! Scrape video previews
|-
! Atomic
|-
! Attract-Mode
|-
! Aurora Game Hub
|-
! BizHawk
|-
! Bottlenose
|-
! CabrioFE
|-
! CoinOPS
|-
! EmuCenter 2
|-
! EmuCon
|-
! Emulation Station
|-
! EmuLoader
|-
! FEEL
|-
! GameEx
|-
! GameRoom
|-
! Games (Gnome)
|-
! HyperSpin
|-
! Ice
|-
! Launch Box
|-
! LusSpace
|-
! Lutris
|-
! MaLa
|-
! Maximus Arcade
|-
! Metropolis Launcher
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}} (built-in only)
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
|
| {{✓}} (offline db)
| {{✓}}
|
|-
! mGalaxy
|-
! Pegasus
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
|
|
|
|-
! Photon Game Manager
|-
! Playnite
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| style="background: #FFB" | Via plugin
| {{✓}}
| {{✓}}
| style="background: #FFB" | Via plugin
|-
! Project Ascension
|-
! QuickPlay
|-
! RetroArch
|-
! RetroFe
|-
! RoM-Jacket
|-
! skeletonKey
|-
! Snowflake
|-
! Steam Rom Manager
|}

[[Category:FAQs]]

Emulation General Wiki - User contributions [en]

Comparison of frontends